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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
elegant and precisely observed comedy, great prose style,
By A Customer
This review is from: North Gladiola (Hardcover)
I love this author--it is a crime he most of his works are out of print. This book, like others, is a rich, completely realized world of ordinary-seeming characters who have profound, quiet revelations. Funnier and more humane than John Kennedy Toole. Wilcox deserves to be recognized as one of the best writers alive today. Sadly, he is almost obscure. What a crime.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who Needs Enemies With Friends Like These?,
By "drwspoon" (Garner, NC USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: North Gladiola (Voices of the South) (Paperback)
Mrs. Coco is a middle-aged lady with six grown children-- none of whom turned out very well. The oldest daughter is cricket ranching in Australia and the youngest son is taking classes in weaving. Her 71-year-old husband is driving her crazy with his penchant for buying useless items that are on sale. But the true center of Mrs. Coco's life is her string quartet even though their usual venue is the opening of some new burger drive-through. Still, she (and seemingly everyone else in this book) is feeling a bit dissatisfied, a bit empty.Then a series of misunderstandings puts the good Catholic Mrs. Coco smack-dab in the middle of town gossip. She is said to have committed adultery with DuK-Soo, the second violin in her quartet. She is said to have murdered the hairdresser's dog. And it is said that she was throwing up in Duk-soo's dorm room because she was drunk. On the long dark road to clearing her name, Mrs. Coco will even question her faith in God. When I first began reading, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend time with all these peevish people, but gradually the absurd situations and the very sympathetic Mrs. Coco sucked me in. It is a funny book, but the humor is very painful.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enduring ingratitude,
By
This review is from: North Gladiola (Voices of the South) (Paperback)
Mrs. Coco, a Mississippian, considers herself in exile in Louisiana. In Tula Springs she is not far from Mississippi. Ethyl Mae eloped to marry Mr. Coco. She plays the cello in a string quartet, Pro Arts. She is fifty seven years old. Her youngest child, the sixth, is still in college.
Myrtice and Duk-Soo are also members of the quartet, along with Mrs. Coco and her son, George Henry. The quartet plays at the new Burger Mat. Someone from Eutaw recognizes Mrs. Coco because she won the swimsuit event in a Miss Mississippi contest. Mr. Coco's retail store, not situated at the mall, is not doing well. The family lives in the only private house in the business district of Tula Springs. The beauty college is adjacent to the family home. In addition to George Henry, the Coco children are Sam, Lucy, Larry, Helen Ann, and Nancy. Mrs. Coco drives an eighteen year old Dodge Dart. She has been learning a Dvorak concerto for twelve years. North Gladiola is located in the southern half of Tula Springs. (There is no South Gladiola.) Mrs. Coco feels that Pro Arts has a duty to raise the cultural level of Tula Springs. She makes a new friend, Maud Herbert. She, Ethyl Coco, is suspected of being involved in the disappearance of the Chihuahua mascot of the beauty college and Maud Herbert takes action to defend her. The quartet becomes a quintet after Mrs. Coco replaces her son with a child and then reinstates her son, George Henry, to the group. Later she discharges Duk-Soo and with other losses Pro Arts becomes a trio. Duk-Soo almost testifies before the dreaded CP, (Citizens' Patrol), about the demise of the pet Chihuahua. The mystery of the connection of the characters to each other is explained in a satisfying manner near the end of the book. It is tremendously funny.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
For Manon, Louisiana was the end of the world, France's Siberia, and so, on some days, did it also seem to Mrs. Coco, who fancied herself an exile of sorts, even though Brookhaven, Mississippi, where she was born and where her brother and sister still lived, was only an hour's drive north. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bottle bazaar, beauty college, dorm mother Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
George Henry, Maud Herbert, Helen Ann, Pro Arts, Tula Springs, Ethyl Mae, Norris State, Baton Rouge, Mayor Binwanger, Father Fua, New Orleans, Dove House, Citizens Patrol, Miss Coco, North Gladiola, Brother Michael, Jane Loll, Mary Ellen, Our Lady, Bessie Building, Rosary Altar Society, Tiger Unisex, Catahoula Corporation, Concerned Citizens Committee, Manon Lescaut New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
For Manon, Louisiana was the end of the world, France's Siberia, and so, on some days, did it also seem to Mrs. Coco, who fancied herself an exile of sorts, even though Brookhaven, Mississippi, where she was born and where her brother and sister still lived, was only an hour's drive north. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bottle bazaar, beauty college, dorm mother Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
George Henry, Maud Herbert, Helen Ann, Pro Arts, Tula Springs, Ethyl Mae, Norris State, Baton Rouge, Mayor Binwanger, Father Fua, New Orleans, Dove House, Citizens Patrol, Miss Coco, North Gladiola, Brother Michael, Jane Loll, Mary Ellen, Our Lady, Bessie Building, Rosary Altar Society, Tiger Unisex, Catahoula Corporation, Concerned Citizens Committee, Manon Lescaut New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 48
books:
See all 48 books this book cites
26
books
cite this book:
See all 26 books citing this book
- Plain and Normal: A Novel by James Wilcox in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- The Golden Weather (Voices of the South) by Louis Decimus, Jr. Rubin in Back Matter
- The Dixie Association (Voices of the South) by Donald Hays in Back Matter
- The Gentle Insurrection and Other Stories (Voices of the South) by Doris Betts in Back Matter
- It Is Time, Lord (Voices of the South) by Fred Chappell in Back Matter
See all 48 books this book cites
- Plain and Normal: A Novel by James Wilcox in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Sort of Rich by James Wilcox in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Modern Baptists by James Wilcox in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- Miss Undine's Living Room (Voices of the South) by James Wilcox in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Follow the Story: How to Write Successful Nonfiction by James B. Stewart in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 26 books citing this book
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